January 14, 2011

I had to fill a prescription yesterday at the pharmacy at Mount Sinai hospital (Farmashop) and discovered that you can buy a discount card for an annual cost of $5. This card gives you 12% off the cost of prescriptions (and free home delivery), lab tests, radiology, and doctor charges. I think it's a great deal for those of us whose have monthly prescription costs, which are not covered by medical insurance. (Farmashop prescription costs are normally 5% off the maximum cost, so in actuality you get an additional 7% off.)

I also noticed that you can use your SuperMaxi discount card for 10% off prescription charges at Farmashop (but not for other medical costs at Mount Sinai). So if you already have a SuperMaxi discount card check out again what other benefits it provides, besides discounts at SuperMaxi and Sukasa.

The discounts are only available when paying cash. When paying by credit card the discount with the Mount Sinai card is 6% and the usual 5% with the Supermaxi card.

Farmashop has four locations in Cuenca but I don't think it's a nationwide chain. I called them for you and they do stock Lamotrigine (the brand may be different here). They tend to price pills by the unit and they told me they have 3 strengths: 25mg@24 cents per pill, 50mg@48 cents, and 100mg@96 cents, so depending on your prescription you can see how much it would cost to fill.

Even though this is information for Cuenca I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding it in Guayaquil and Quito, if that is where you intend to go, as those are even larger cities.